Mitigation meetings held

EATON — Preble County’s Emergency Management Agency (EMA) just finished hosting mitigation meetings, according to Director David Anderson. During the Preble County Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 24, Anderson stated he sent out 172 invites, planned nine meetings over three days, and attendance for the meetings were good.

During the meeting, Anderson stated that there had been 46 attendees, but they were expecting 10 more before the day (and the last meeting) finished.

“What are the requirements for the townships and the villages?” Commissioner Denise Robertson asked.

“First of all, they need to participate in the planning of the meetings. I’m not sure how many have and haven’t yet, I’m still checking off boxes to see. There are two more meetings coming up and then they will do the review. They will have the opportunity to look over just their section and to make sure everything is correct with that,” Anderson explained.

“Once that happens and everyone is happy with it, I will come to the board and you guys will accept it through resolution, as the county mitigation plan. Then, it goes to the State and they have to approve it. Then it goes to FEMA and once they approve that, the Townships will be fine since the commissioners adopted the resolution, but the villages have to do a resolution on their own. They have 12 months to get it done.”

Anderson added, while they have 12 months, it is recommended that they adopt the resolution as soon as possible. While only one representative has to be present, Anderson sent the invite to everyone he could think of, so his bases were covered.

There was a Weather Spotters Class scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 6 for 6:30 p.m. at the Gratis Fire Department. Anderson explained, “We try to hold this every year. First responders and general public are more than welcome to come to this, it takes about two hours. Once you get finished taking that class, then you can be a Weather Spotter for the National Weather Service.

“They give you an email address and a unique number. You can send them a message about what is going on. It helps them do a better job knowing what happened where. They’re sitting behind a radar and while they’re good at what they do, it is not the same as boots on ground.”